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Groups of Solen hunters kept galloping past the T'Borg Tower. Lela, Fen
and I had finished sorting the days Tailoring BODs, and I had a yen to
put my sewing kit away and join the merry throng in a bit of Anting. Alas,
a dash around the neighborhood revealed that every Ant already had a dance
partner. What to do? I rooted around in my pack and came up with a Felucca
Moonstone. I shrugged. Black Solen fall to a GM Tailor just as easily
as the red. I dropped the stone and waited for the familiar gate to pop
up. MintCup got a little balky at the glowing gate, but I gave him a dig
with my heels and he minced reluctantly through.
Spooky music and a sad lack of leaves greeted me. I set to work, filling my pack with gold and pretty pink Ant Moss, a couple of binding bracelets and a picnic basket. As my pack filled, I recalled to Skara Brae to unload, then bounced back to my home in Oasis. A thirty second panicked gallop through the scorpians (MintCup loathes scorpians) and I was back in Solen country, ready for round two.
Across the river I heard the sound of a rider and paused. He came out of the tree line and for a moment our eyes met as we stared at each other across the water. He was dressed all in cool grey-blue to match his chilly eyes and on his forehead glowed the red brand of a murderer.
I turned to the East, speeding away, grateful the bridge was nowhere in sight. Once I reached the relative safety of a stand of trees, I paused, listening, but no tell-tale hoofbeats indicated I was being chased. I relaxed and kicked MintCup into an easy lope. A moment later, I came across a young man eating an apple. I hesitated again, but he smiled at me in a friendly manner and tossed me an apple too.
"Hello," I said, feeding the apple to MintCup.
He smiled a little nervously at me and said, "You'll want to be careful---there's murderers about."
"I know! I saw one!" I said. "Across the river, so I came this way."
He looked about, as if slightly alarmed, "Did they follow you?"
"No, he didn't seem too seem too interested in me," I answered.
"I wouldn't count on that," he said, and grinned. His eyes shifted to a point just behind me and he said, "Are you positive he didn't follow you?" There was a mocking lilt to his voice now, and the feigned nervousness had vanished.
I whirled around, panicked, but saw no one there. "I don't think that's funny," I said to him.
"Then you probably won't be amused by this, either," said a new voice, and the cool-eyed murderer I had seen before seemed to appear out of thin air from the shadow cast by a leafless elm. A stealther! No wonder I had heard nothing! I tried to run, but already he was chanting words of power, and a blast of mystical energy almost toppled me from Mintcup's back. I hurled my scissors at my attacker, but they bounced harmlessly off his armor, not even disturbing his concentration as he readied a spell to finish me.
As the blast threw me to the ground, I screamed "MintCup! RU-" but my life force left me before I finished the command. MintCup stood blinking at my corpse, placidly sucking on his apple as if it were a lozenge.
My ghost lingered near, watching over him, but to my relief the brigands had no interest in my mount. They turned instead to the business of dividing the spoils of my pack. Too late I noticed that both the murderer and my apple-eating friend bore the same guild insignia. AOE? I had never heard of such a guild. As they efficiently stripped away my valuables, they were joined by a third man who also bore the red brand of a murderer and wore the AOE guild sign.
The third man stared musingly down at my corpse, and then turned my body over with the toe of one boot, looking intently into my dead face, "Hold, Jharen," he said to my killer. "I know this girl from somewhere."
The young man I had met first fed the core of his apple to MintCup and laughed. "Offed a friend of yours have we, Calanthe?"
Calanthe shook his head, "No, Horizon, no friend of mine…I can't quite place her-Ah. Got it. She's one of those reporters from Stratics."
He turned away, but the man he had called Jharen was now regarding my corpse with interest. "Wait, Calanthe. Perhaps she can be useful to us." Once again he began chanting mystical words and with a sickening wrench my spirit was sucked back into my bruised body. The one called Calanthe extended a polite hand and pulled me to my feet. I was already scrabbling in my pack for my charged runebook, knowing my strong bond with MintCup would pull him to safety with me, when I felt cool steel against my wrist and heard the click of a lock. The manacles held my hands together, rending me incapable of performing the gestures needed for my recall spell to work properly.
"Excuse me, Lady" said the one called Jharen, his voice cool and civil, "but I can't have you porting off before my business with you is finished."
Calanthe gave me a boost onto Mintcup's waiting back, and Horizon took the reins, leading Mintcup through the woods to an unknown destination. The two murderers flanked me. I was ready to despair when suddenly, crashing through the bushes came a pair of knights in Valorite armor, carrying heavy rucksacks of Ant Moss and talking so loudly to each other they had not noticed our party until they were nearly upon us.
Before Horizon or one of the murderers could do anything I called out, "Quickly, I beg thee! Unlock my chains! If thou dost look at me close thou canst see them!" The knights goggled at us for a moment, hesitating, and I called out, "Have you no Compassion? No sense of Justice?"
Horizon shook his head, "I wish you had not done that," he said, grinning evilly.
"Actually, I'm rather pleased she did," said Calanthe, and with a roar he fell on upon the clostest knight, and the battle was on….
*Pluffy had been rudely interrupted in her ant-hunting by an untimely demise. A red named Jheran d'Sarte had murdered her, but then resurrected her for some as yet unknown purpose. When we last saw Pluffy, she was being dragged off to destinations unknown by the vile reds of AOE. Luckily, they ran into a pair of stalwart knights who engaged the reds in battle in an attempt to rescue Pluffina.*
We wound our way through the woods, the one called Horizon leading MintCup by his reins. The sounds of the river faded and I was soon lost. Eventually we came to a villa, and they took me inside.
"If you swear upon your honor not to recall away before I have finished speaking with you, I will release your hands," said the one called Jharen. I nodded my assent. "I must warn you, if your honor has no more worth than, say, Horizon's, then Kal Ort PoooOOOooO- will be your last words."
Horizon chuckled and Jharen released the lock on the manacles. I rubbed at my wrists and asked, "What do you want with me?"
In answer, Calanthe handed me a quill and a sheaf of soft paper. Jharen said, "I have a message for the good people of Sonoma." He grinned wickedly and added, "And a message for the bad people of Sonoma as well…."
Pluffy: I could not help but notice your guild insignia…AOE - what's that?
Jheran d'Sarte: Access of Evil. We are a guild dedicated to aiding and assisting the Champions of Evil. You might want to think of us as a 17th red candle to defeat.
Pluffy: Are you interested in the Champion Spawns or any evil conglomerate? For example, I could not help but notice you assisting my Ants today *cough.*
Jheran d'Sarte: What can I say…We're evil. We are focused on assisting the Champions when the citizens of Britannia threaten them. Outside of that, we work to further their cause by spreading Chas through the land.
Pluffy: SO tell me - What can folks expect from AOE at a champ spawn.
Jheran d'Sarte: To die.
Horizon: A fast ride to town.
Calanthe: Some regs from me.
Pluffy: And outside a champion spawn…
Jheran d'Sarte: …we spread chaos and mayhem
Calanthe: If we happen to be out collecting ant legs (good eatings) and see someone stealing our food, we will definitely kill them.
Jheran d'Sarte: If you see me, you should generally expect to be attacked. We aren't trash talkers or mount killers…but we are killers. Make no mistake about that.
Calanthe: Most of all you can expect a fight instead of server hopping and running away.
Jheran d'Sarte: But until someone proves unworthy, they can expect to be treated with respect.
Pluffy: Respectfully killed.
Horizon: I think she's got it.
Horizon passed MintCup's reins back over to me and I mounted and rode away as quickly as I could. I had to get back to the Taverna Stratica. All of Sonoma needed to be warned that they could soon be facing more than just monsters at the Champion spawns. Before hitting the Skara Brae moongate, I dropped by the YMCA on a hunch. Sure enough, Drizzt was sitting down there, having an ale with Bitter Oswald.
"Drizzt! There you are!" I said. "Better saddle up and call every other anti you know out of retirement---things are about to get hairy at the champ spawns…